3 Underrated Digital Analytics Tools for Product Managers

Ah, the age of AI… Everyone’s talking about it, everyone’s taking their first steps with it. Which is totally fine, don’t get us wrong. But if there is one thing that unequivocally brings value to a product manager’s daily workflow, it’s still digital analytics. One may argue that AI will soon overcome this space as well, but until then, let’s unpack three underrated digital analytics tools that can make a product manager’s life easier on multiple fronts!

What are digital analytics tools?

A lot fits under this broad term. Broadly speaking, digital analytics tools are software applications that allow businesses to track, measure, and analyze data related to their online presence and activities. They collect data on web traffic, user behavior, and other digital interactions such as product usage, email campaigns, social media marketing campaigns, and more. Digital analytics tools use a variety of methods to collect customer data: cookies, tracking pixels, and tags are among the most popular.

The end result is reports and dashboards that visualize the data and provide insights to help small businesses and big businesses alike make data-driven decisions. The data can be used to optimize the product, sales, and marketing strategy, improve performance and conversion rate, and ultimately – drive business growth and increase revenue.

Where does the data collection happen?

You think you know your website visitors and product users? Think again! There are three major sources of retroactive and real-time data that can help you gain a better understanding of your user base.

• Website traffic data tells you who’s showing up on your site and what they’re up to. It also lets you figure out which demographic groups are most interested in your products and which channels are worth your time.

• Product data is where the magic happens. Your customers are generating a ton of data, just by using your product – it tells you what features they love, what makes them convert, and even what’s bugging them. This is where you can dig into customer segments and identify trends in their behavior.

• Digital marketing data gives you a lowdown on prospective customers. Analyzing keywords could uncover a whole new market, while data from social media posts tells you what content resonates with your audience.

This leads us to the question – what types of digital analytics are there? Below, you will find a short list of the most common ones:

• Web analytics tools
• Product analytics tools
• Content analytics tools
• SEO analytics tools
• Customer analytics tools
• Usability (UX) analytics tools
• A/B and multivariate testing tools
• Social media analytics tools
• General enterprise analytics tools

Do you really need digital analytics?

Technically speaking – no, you don’t. *thunder rumbles in the distance*

If you made it to launch, your product will be alive and probably well for some time after the big day. But then, bugs will start appearing, customers will get frustrated with an unintuitive user interface or lacking customer support, and your digital marketing team will start pestering you that they don’t have customer data to track their campaigns… You see where this is going.

Analytics tools are vital for the survival of any digital product nowadays, and the sooner you get on board with that, the better. They will guide your decisions on a daily basis – from spotting technical issues to filtering out the noise to decipher what makes users convert (and devise strategies to capitalize on that knowledge). Did we mention this is how you get to minimize churn?

Why did we choose to show you those that are (still) under the radar?

Well, obviously, (almost) everyone is familiar with Google Analytics, Amplitude, and Hotjar. Nothing wrong with that, they were some of the first and their fame is working to attract new users daily. But is this all there is? Certainly not.

The digital analytics tools space is not a crowded one yet. Apart from the leaders in terms of sheer volume, there are also solid contenders that take leadership positions with different types of offerings (as witnessed by G2). But they rarely get the lion’s share of attention. Google is awash with listicles that further reinforce the status quo – we are also guilty as charged. Let’s break this vicious cycle and focus on a few lesser-known but equally robust digital analytics solutions!

3 Underrated Digital Analytics Tools for Product Managers: the List

Ready to dive in? Below, you will find a list of tools you might have never heard about – but let that not dissuade you from trying them! Sometimes, the devil’s in the details and you might find a tool that works better for your use case and for a lower price than your current one… Even free (or at least with a free trial).

Tool #1: SessionStack

It wouldn’t be unfair to feature SessionStack first, right? Our very own digital experience analytics platform was built with product managers, developers, and CX teams in mind – but can help your whole organization gain valuable insights that translate into better product adoption, increased conversion rate, and multi-level efficiencies that are hard to beat.

What exactly is SessionStack?

SessionStack is an all-in-one digital experience analytics platform. A bundle of handy behavioral, dev, and CX product analytics tools that help teams discover pain points and ideas for improvement with ease. 

Did we mention session recording? That’s right, apart from the vast trove of quantitative data, it also gives you pixel-perfect visualizations of user sessions through session recording that has no impact on product performance. And to top it all off, this feature also allows CS and CX teams to tap into the potential of real-time collaboration with users via co-browsing. This is what we call true digital experience analytics!

How does SessionStack help PMs?

Growth objectives can be tricky but they are way easier to achieve with a holistic approach to data. With SessionStack, PMs have a clear picture of product discovery and usage at any scale. This is achieved with the clever combination of qualitative and quantitative data in real time that not only shows whether your product is working as your team expects it to – but also as your users expect it to. No need for complex user surveys, every touchpoint is recorded and can be replayed on demand to show specific frustrations or delights. 

What’s included?

• Session recording and pixel-perfect session replay with user environment: watch how users interact with your product and reproduce problems with accuracy. Now, it has a built-in AI capability that helps you navigate your session replays faster: discover SessionStackAI >>
• Co-browsing (real-time interaction with users): provide immediate assistance to facilitate onboarding and prevent churn.
• User segmentation by user, session, and event attributes: understand your users at scale and spot recurring click trends.
• Intuitive funnels that work retroactively: monitor the user journey and pinpoint the biggest drop-off points.
• Dev tools with detailed events & errors log: spot technical issues before they become bottlenecks.
• Integrations with a variety of web and product analytics tools, as well as CX platforms: sync your data across various platforms to get the (even) bigger picture.

Price:

• Free forever plan with 1500 sessions per month
• Paid tiers start at $71 per month

Score on G2: 4.9

Tool #2: Sherlock

With a name like that, it’s obvious that we’d get curious. Sherlock is a platform that provides real SaaS businesses (they focus on real for some reason) with the vital product engagement data needed to grow revenue.

What exactly is Sherlock?

Sherlock is a powerful app that brings product, sales, and CS teams together by focusing on one key concept – product engagement. By analyzing engagement metrics, Sherlock provides valuable insights on how accounts and users are interacting with your product, helping your teams take customers from trial to forever.

The app also allows you to easily score engagement and create custom segments for key accounts and users. Plus, you can access Sherlock’s metrics from your favorite tools like Slack, Intercom, and Salesforce. With Sherlock, your team can make data-driven decisions that ensure customer success at an enterprise level.

How does Sherlock help PMs?

Sherlock brings value to product managers in the form of account-based analytics. Unlike traditional user-based analytics, it tracks adoption, engaging events, and onboarding processes at the account and the user level which helps SaaS businesses gain better understanding of their customers’ needs throughout their lifecycle. 

What’s included?

• Engagement tracking: you can track engagement over time and by account
• Activation tracking: you can set customized activation criteria so you know when someone’s stuck or reaches product qualified status
• Adoption tracking: understand when someone needs help with onboarding, or if a new feature is killing it
• User segmentation: create and access key account & user segments.
• Integrations with Slack, Intercom, Salesforce & more: you can access your insights in your favorite tools.

Price: Plans start at $199 per month

Score on G2: 4.4

Tool #3: Sprig

Sprig is a platform that empowers product teams to build better products by providing real-time user insights. 

What exactly is Sprig?

Sprig is a product development lifecycle research platform comprised of several modules. It provides product managers with the tools they need to gain insights throughout the product development process. With Sprig’s unmoderated concept and usability testing, you can test new ideas, designs, and prototypes before launching them to the market. This helps to ensure that the product meets user needs while reducing the risk of investing resources in ideas that won’t be successful.

Sprig’s in-product surveys are also a valuable tool for product managers. By embedding surveys into the product, you can gain insights into what’s working and what’s not with the currently available features. This information is essential for identifying areas for improvement and prioritizing future product development efforts.

What’s included?

• Surveys: you can run targeted surveys within your product and gain a better understanding of your users’ experiences. 
• Replays: get help troubleshooting issues and identifying areas for optimization by capturing targeted user journey clips. 
• Prototype Tests: validate design decisions and capture user feedback before launching your product. 
• AI Analysis: summarizes open-text responses into actionable themes, providing you with valuable insights to prioritize new features. 
• Dozens of integrations: you can easily share insights for collaboration and buy-in. 

Price:

• Free plan includes 1 Survey and 1 Prototype Test per month
• Paid tiers start at $175 per month

Score on G2: 4.6

To put it in a nutshell…

In the age of AI, digital analytics tools are still the product manager’s best friend. They can deliver valuable insights into the product’s usage and user base, thus providing a starting point for devising optimization strategies – and a monitoring aid to make sure the strategies are working. While the behemoths in the industry certainly have their strengths, there are also smaller, up-and-coming contenders that can bring something different to the table. In this article, we presented you with three of them – and in case you are interested in getting your hands dirty with customer data, take a look at SessionStack’s free plans here >>